Real estate transaction system

ABSTRACT

A network based real estate transaction system is disclosed for assisting real estate agents and their clients with determining properties for purchase.

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/936,781 filed on Nov. 7, 2007; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/936,781 claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/864,606 filed Nov. 7, 2006. Each of the above-referenced applications are incorporated by reference for all purposes.

RELATED FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to real estate transaction processing systems, and in particular, in facilitating the purchasing of real estate properties.

BACKGROUND

It would be desirable and advantageous to have an Internet based real transaction system that could assist agents and their clients in identifying properties for purchase by such clients.

SUMMARY

A real estate transaction system is disclosed herein for assisting the finding and purchasing of real estate. Among the features disclosed herein are the following:

-   1. The present real estate transaction system models feasibility     and/or likelihood of a real estate transaction being completed by a     potential buyer on each of one or more properties, in particular,     the modeling may be performed per potential property being     considered by the potential buyer, such models based on:     -   A. Data to be obtained from potential buyer         -   i. Purpose of purchase             -   1. Primary residence, rental, speculation,                 rebuild/renovate, buyer for another (children, parent,                 relative).         -   ii. Reason for potential purchase             -   1. Need more room, need less room, desire to be closer                 to work, desire a better neighborhood/school system,                 relocated for job, etc.         -   iii. Characteristics of desired transaction.             -   1. Model of the desired financial portion of the                 transaction                 -   a. Type of mortgage(s) desired, and/or acceptable                 -   b. Amount for down payment                 -   c. Acceptable monthly payment range                 -   d. Lease/buy option             -   2. When must a purchased property be acquired?         -   iv. Characteristics of potential buyer             -   1. For potential buyers of a principle residence:                 -   a. Income, education level, number of children,                     marital status,                 -   b. How does the potential buyer allocate and use                     his/her time over, e.g., a six month or year time                     period? In particular, what is the comparative                     importance to the potential buyer of being in                     proximity to and/or having access to facilities for:                 -    recreational preferences (sports, exercise,                     boating, flying, swimming, horse back riding, etc.),                 -    hobbies (e.g., restoring cars, music or book                     collector, wood worker, rock collector, etc.),                 -    religious activities (e.g., church affiliations,                     etc.),                 -    activities for children (e.g., school activities,                     extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs).         -   v. Desired/acceptable neighborhood characteristics             -   1. Crime rate, average property price, covenants, range                 from freeway(s), grocery store(s), shopping, bike                 path(s), air pollution, recreation sites.             -   2. Qualitative descriptions; e.g., “quiet”, “energetic”,         -   vi. Desired/acceptable property description             -   1. Private residence, commercial, raw land, distressed                 property, etc.             -   2. Size characteristics, e.g., number of bedrooms,                 square feet ranges, parking facilities, etc.             -   3. Expected likely expenditures for maintenance in first                 1, 2, 3, 4, and/or 5 years after property purchased.             -   4.         -   vii. Travel related criteria to typical locations             -   1. Acceptable travel distance and/or time to work,                 school(s), shopping, grocery store, entertainment,                 airports, mass transit sites         -   viii. Potential buyer specification of location             characteristics unique to the potential buyer             -   1. Acceptable range in time and/or distance from work,                 friends, family, school, church attended, children's                 piano, golf, tennis lessons, private schools, etc.             -   2. Not near high power electrical lines, not adjacent to                 a freeway, not within 5 miles of an agricultural area.             -   3. Desirable for attracting employees.     -   B. Similarities to previous potential buyers -   2. A comparator for comparing properties. -   3. Test properties for weighting transactions characteristics. -   4. What if scenarios. -   5. Maintain potential buyer list of properties of interest (e.g.,     after reviewing).

Additionally, the real estate transaction system herein combines wireless location and methods for routing to real estate properties with the above features. In particular, the following method is provided:

A method for assisting in a real estate transaction, the method including at least one of: (1) the steps (A) through (C) hereinbelow, and (2) a step of providing programmatic instructions on a storage media for enabling the steps (A) through (C) hereinbelow:

-   -   (A) for a user of a communication device (CD), a step of first         obtaining user input of corresponding real estate preference         information for one or more real estate properties;     -   wherein the corresponding real estate preference information         includes data for a geolocation condition, said geolocation         condition for determining one or more presentations to be         presented at CD, wherein the geolocation condition is satisfied         for a presentation (P) of the one or more presentations, by         determining that: for some estimated location, or location along         an expected future route, (L_(CD)) of the communication device         CD, and for a corresponding destination (D_(P)) associated with         the presentation P wherein the user gains greater access to an         instance of the at least one real estate property by the user         traveling to D_(P), that D_(P) is one or more of (a1), (a2) and         (a3) following:         -   (a1) within one of: a specified user travel distance of the             location L_(CD), or a specified geographically identified             area of the location L_(CD),         -   (a2) within a specified expected elapsed time of travel from             the location L_(CD); and         -   (a3) nearer to L_(CD) than at least one other destination             for accessing an instance of the at least one real estate             property;     -   (B) obtaining a location estimate (L_(EST)) of an actual or         expected future geographic location (L₁) of the communication         device CD at a first time, wherein the location estimate is         dependent upon geolocation indicative information communicated         between: (i) the communication device CD, and (ii) a         communications network;     -   (C) one or more of (c1) and (c2) following are performed,         wherein for a first of the at least one real estate property,         there is a first presentation (P₁) providing information related         to accessing an instance (I₁) of the first real estate property,         and P₁ having associated therewith information used for         identifying a corresponding destination (D_(P) ₁ ) for accessing         I₁:     -   (c1) the steps (c1-1) and (c1-2) following are performed,         wherein for the first real estate property, the corresponding         property preference information is satisfied for the first         presentation P₁ with the location estimate L_(EST) being used to         obtain a corresponding instance of L_(CD):         -   (c1-1) accessing information (INF_(m)) associated with             another of the presentations (P_(m)) of some one of the real             estate properties (REP), wherein INF_(m) includes at least a             corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) associated with P_(m),             and determining that for the corresponding destination D_(P)             _(m) , the geolocation condition of the corresponding             property preference information for the real estate property             REP is satisfied; and         -   (c1-2) providing information for computing a route (R_(m))             to substantially the corresponding destination D_(P) ₁ ,             wherein the route R_(m) is to go to D_(P) _(m) ; and     -   (c2) the steps (c2-1) through (c2-4) following are performed,         wherein in addition to the geolocation condition associated with         the first real estate property, there is additionally associated         therewith additional preference information (AP), obtained from         user input, said additional preference information AP also used         for determining whether a presentation for the first real estate         property is to be presented at the communication device CD,         wherein the additional preference information AP is stored for         accessing at a plurality of substantially different times for         determining whether some one or more presentations for the first         real estate property are to be presented at the communication         device CD;         -   wherein from the additional preference information AP one or             more additional conditions are obtained for evaluating             whether a presentation (P_(J)) is to be presented at CD such             that (c2-a) and (c2-b) following hold:         -   (c2-a) the evaluating of the additional conditions uses a             characteristic that is one of (c2-ai) and (c2-aii)             following:             -   (c2-ai) indicative of how the user desires to access an                 instance (I_(J)) of the first real estate property, and             -   (c2-aii) obtained using property access information,                 associated with P_(J), such that the characteristic                 provides information as to how the user is able to                 access the instance b;         -    wherein said instance I_(J) accessible at a corresponding             destination (D_(P) _(J) ) associated with P_(J), and         -   (c2-b) the characteristic is both of (c2-bi) and (c2-bii)             following:             -   (c2-bi) independent of substantially an entire travel                 distance to, and a geographical area of, D_(P) _(J) ;                 and (c2-bii) independent of an expected time for                 traveling substantially an entire travel distance to                 D_(P) _(J) ;         -   (c2-1) for a presentation (P_(k)) being an instance of             P_(J), a step of first accessing at least a portion of the             additional preference information AP, and a step of             determining that for the presentation P_(k) at least one of             the additional conditions is not satisfied when evaluated             according to (c2-a) and (c2-b) above;         -   (c2-2) obtaining an additional location estimate of an             actual or expected future geographic location of the             communication device CD at a different geographic location             from L₁ or at a substantially different subsequent time from             the first time, such that the additional location estimate             is dependent upon geolocation indicative information             communicated between: (i) the communication device CD,             and (ii) a communications network;         -   (c2-3) second accessing the additional preference             information AP, and determining that for the additional             location estimate, and the corresponding destination D_(P) ₁             associated with P₁, both the geolocation condition is             satisfied, and for P₁ being an instance of P_(J), the             additional conditions evaluated according to (c2-a) and             (c2-b) above are satisfied;         -   (c2-4) providing information for computing a route (R₁);             wherein the route R₁ includes at least one direction for             directing the user from substantially the additional             location estimate to substantially the corresponding             destination D_(P) ₁ ; and         -   FIGS. 1A and 1B show a high level block diagram of an             embodiment of the present real estate     -   wherein information indicative of one or more of: the route         R_(m), the route R₁, the presentation P₁, and the presentation         P_(m) is transmitted to the communication device CD.

Other features and benefits of the real estate transaction system disclosed herein will become evident from the description hereinbelow and the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a high level block diagram of an embodiment of the present real estate transaction system.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show a flowchart of some of the operations of the present real estate transaction system.

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of a user interface architecture for the present real estate transaction system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Introductory Discussion

The following U.S. Patents and U.S. Patent Applications are fully incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,140 filed Oct. 23, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,541 filed Aug. 15, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,776 filed Jan. 31, 2001; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0266457 filed Jun. 4, 2001; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0198386 file Jan. 6, 2003.

In particular, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0198386 (“386 Publication”) discloses wireless location technologies and the use of various communication systems and networks for wireless geolocation. For example, the '386 Publication discloses a “system [that] uses a plurality of [mobile stations (“MS”)] locating technologies including those based on: (1) two-way TOA and TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) distributed antenna provisioning; (5) GPS signals, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from various types of very low cost non-infrastructure base stations for communicating via a typical commercial wireless base station infrastructure or a public telephone switching network.”

[Location estimators or first order models (“FOMs”)] themselves may be hybrid combinations of MS location techniques. For example, an embodiment of the present invention may include a FOM that uses a combination of Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Timing Advance (TA) location measurement techniques for locating the target MS, wherein such a technique may require only minor modifications to the wireless infrastructure. In particular, such a FOM may provide reduced MS location errors and reduced resolution of ambiguities than are present when these techniques are used separately.

'386 Publication, para. [0095].

[H]ybrid systems wherein there are specialized location electronics at the handset (“handset” being used herein as an equivalent to mobile station unless stated otherwise), but a non-trivial amount of the location processing is performed at a network site rather at the MS. An example of such a hybrid system is what is known as network assisted GPS systems, wherein GPS signals are obtained at the MS (with the assistance network received information) and GPS timing information is transmitted from the MS to the network for performing MS location computations.

'386 Publication, para. [0006].

With reference to FIG. 8 (1) of the '386 Publication,

The WATTERS FOM includes a location estimator for determining the location of a target MS 140 using satellite signals to the target MS 140 as well as delay in wireless signals communicated between the target MS and base stations 122. For example, aspects of global positioning system (GPS) technology and cellular technology are combined in order to locate a target MS 140. The WATTERS FOM may be used to determine target MS location in a wireless network, wherein the network is utilized to collect differential GPS error correction data, which is forwarded to the target MS 140 via the wireless network. The target MS 140 (which includes a receiver R for receiving non-terrestrial wireless signals from, e.g., GPS, or other satellites, or even airborne craft) receives this data, along with GPS pseudoranges using its receiver R, and calculates its position using this information. However, when the requisite number of satellites are not in view of the MS 140, then a pseudosatellite signal, broadcast from a BS 122 of the wireless network, is received by the target MS 140 and processed as a substitute for the missing satellite signal. Additionally, in at least some circumstances, when the requisite number of satellites (more generally, non-terrestrial wireless transmitters) are not detected by the receiver R, then the target MS's location is calculated using the wireless network infrastructure via TDOA/TOA with the BSs 122 of the network. When the requisite number of satellites (more generally, non-terrestrial wireless transmitters) are again detected by the receiver R, then the target MS is again calculated using wireless signals from the non-terrestrial wireless transmitters. Additionally, the WATTERS FOM may use wireless signals already being transmitted from base stations 122 to the target MS 140 in wireless network to calculate a round trip time delay, from which a distance calculation between the base station and the target MS can be made. This distance calculation substitutes for a missing non-terrestrial transmission signal.

'386 Publication, para. [0454].

FIGS. 1A and 1B show an embodiment of a networked (Internet) real estate property portal 20 (website) as contemplated by the present disclosure. The portal 20 communicates both wirelessly and wired with real estate agents/brokers 24 (and their offices), potential real estate buyers 28, and sellers 32 via one or more networks 36. Such communication may be provided via a combination of telecommunication carriers and Internet service providers 40.

Communication with the portal is generally via the network interface 44 which provides both secure (e.g., virtual private network) communications and less secure network communications as provided by most websites. Interface 44 communicates with accessibility subsystem 48 for determining the access level to be provided to users requesting access. The following types of users are distinguished by this subsystem: (i) agents/brokers registered to use the services of the portal 20, (ii) potential real estate buyers or seller registered to use the services of the portal 20, and (iii) non-registered users. The accessibility subsystem 48 also registers users for allowing greater access to the portal's services. In addition to users being able to contact the portal 20, this portal can also transmit messages (e.g., via email, synthesized voice messages, instant messaging, and/or text messaging) to agents, buyers, sellers and other parties pertinent to a real estate transaction. To perform such communications, the portal 20 includes a notification system 52 for receiving message information and an identification of one or more recipients, wherein the system 52 determines the transmission techniques to be used and the order they should be employed. Accordingly, an agent may have input information to the portal 20 requesting to be notified of requested real estate showings of his/her listings via synthesized voice messages requiring confirmation of receipt and/or review, followed by a text message text message if no such confirmation is received from the agent within, e.g., 15 minutes. However, for other users (e.g., a potential real estate buyer), such notifications may be only via wireless transmissions such as email or instant messaging without confirmation of review by the buyer being required. The notification system 52 provides its output to a user device presentation determiner 56 which tailors the message or notification for output to be appropriate for the intended user device that is to receive the message or notification. Accordingly, if the intended device is a portal computer with sufficient graphics display capabilities, then maps and various photo and/or video data streams may be transmitted to the device. However, if the intended device is a mobile phone with a small display screen, or a pager, then only text messages (perhaps with reduced graphics) may be transmitted (possibly together with information for logging onto the portal to receive additional information regarding the notification). The presentation determiner 56, in at least one embodiment, communicates with a routing or navigation subsystem 60 for obtaining directions to a particular location. Accordingly, the presentation determiner 56 may provide the routing subsystem 60 with data requesting that only textual navigational information be supplied; alternatively, such data may request graphical mapping information be supplied as well. The navigation subsystem 60 may, in turn, contact any one of a number of navigation services well known in the art.

Before proceeding with further description of the tasks performed by the portal 20, description of the databases and data repositories accessed are now described. Accordingly, the following databases are accessible.

-   -   (a) Demographics database 64: This database may be a “virtual         database” in the sense that it is distributed over the Internet         with various portions supplied by different third parties. This         database includes access to demographic data based geographic         locations or areas such as the data supplied by Claritas         described further hereinbelow. Such geographic areas may be         identified by neighborhoods, subdivisions, zipcodes.         Accordingly, demographics of such a given geographic area may be         retrieved from this database. Alternatively, such geographic         areas may be determined by requesting areas that satisfy certain         demographic and/or geographical and/or environmental         constraints. For example, a query may be request neighborhoods         having at least 30% singles, within ¼ mile of a park of at least         10 acres, with the neighborhood being mostly home owners. This         database may provide access to real estate appreciation rates by         geographic area, owner/renter occupancy, price per square foot,         average/median price, crime rates by geographical areas, rental         vacancies, rent prices, etc. Note, that much of the information         accessible via the database 64 may be provided by a multiple         listing service.     -   (b) External database(s) 68: The database(s) here may be         extensions of the database 64. The database(s) here may assist         in providing additional information for satisfying buyer's         transaction models (described hereinbelow).     -   (c) For sale and past sold properties database 72: This database         provides information to assist an agent, potential buyer and/or         seller in determining appropriate property prices. Accordingly,         the following statistics may be provided: property description         statistics (e.g., address, size statistics, number of parking         spaces, number of bedrooms, number of building levels, etc.) of         properties currently on the market or sold, length of time on         the market, selling date (if any).     -   (d) Transaction model and profile generator 76: This component         may be used by portal 20 users to generate profiles of         properties for selecting properties that are more likely to be         purchased. In particular, as described hereinbelow, property         profiles may be generated, based on what past clients have         purchased, that are likely predictive of what current and future         similar clients may purchase.     -   (e) User and property profiles database 80: The data repository         for agent and client profiles as well as property profiles as         discussed hereinbelow. Note that at least some of the property         profiles may be generated by the generator 76.     -   (f) Profile evaluator 84: A subsystem for evaluating property         profiles of properties identified and described according to         information residing in the database 72 and the demographic         database 64.     -   (g) What if evaluator 88: This component allows clients to         create and manipulate “what if” or hypothesized transaction         models such as what if interest rates go up; what if I increase         my max travel time to work to 1 hr., etc.     -   (h) Property evaluator and comparator 92: This component         evaluates and compares client/agent selected properties; this         component includes predictors for predicting likely appreciation         rates, maintenance/fix up costs, ROI, utility costs etc.

In the present real estate transaction disclosure, when the term “satisfy” in reference to a constraint for property selection is used herein, the term may, refer to a binary result of either “satisfied”, or “unsatisfied”. Accordingly, the term “satisfy” may preclude partial satisfactions. However, in another interpretation, the term “satisfied” in reference to a constraint for property selection as used herein, may yield more than two possible binary results. In particular, there may be degrees of satisfaction. For example, in this later use of the term “satisfy”, a potential buyer may be requested to provide additional input relative to a constraint such as to what degree the constraint is important, e.g., the potential buyer may additionally be asked whether the constraint is “required to be satisfied”, “preferred to be satisfied”, or “may be acceptable even though not satisfied”. Other discrete assessments of constraint importance may be used as well, such as a constraint scale from 1 to 10 where 10 corresponds to “required to be satisfied”, 7 to 9 may correspond to degrees of “preferred to be satisfied”, 5 to 6 corresponds to degrees of a generally neutral perception of the constraint (e.g., “may be acceptable even though not satisfied”, “of marginal importance”), 3 to 4 may correspond to a negative perception for satisfying the constraint (e.g., “not preferred”), 1 to 2 may indicate that the constraint should not be satisfied (e.g., “firmly against satisfaction”). Additionally, note that other terms may be used to communicate with a potential buyer (also referred to as a “client” herein). For example, a potential buyer may respond to an expanded response constraint generation question “Do you prefer to live in a very urban environment?” Accordingly, the potential buyer may provide a response on a scale from “required” to “preferred”, to “neutral”, to “undesirable”, to “absolutely not”. Note, however, that a response may result in the generation of one of two constraints within the real estate transaction system disclosed herein. For example, for a potential buyer response to the constraint generation question above of “preferred” to “neutral”, a first constraint corresponding to “I prefer to live in a very urban environment” may be generated with a degree of importance corresponding to the potential buyer's provided importance. Alternatively, for a potential buyer response to the expanded response constraint generation question above of “neutral” to “absolutely not”, a second constraint corresponding to “I do not prefer to live in a very urban environment” may be generated with a degree of importance corresponding to the potential buyer's provided importance. Decomposing potential buyer responses (to response constraint generation questions) into one or more constraints may be worthwhile in that at least some constraint information may only correspond to a degree of positive importance regarding a constraint. For example, a potential buyer may volunteer constraint information such as “I want to live in a forest” and provide an importance of “preferred”. Moreover, communication with a potential buyer may be more natural in that sentences such as “I wish to live in a suburban area” rather than a sentence such as “I wish to live in an urban area” together with an importance measurement indicating “not preferred”.

Substantially any potential buyer characteristic or property/area characteristic may be able to be input into the real estate transaction system disclosed herein as a constraint/criterion for selecting/qualifying a property for presenting to the potential buyer. In one embodiment, there may be predetermined property transaction related questions presented to a potential buyer for selecting properties, and in addition there may be the capability for a potential buyer to input of free form textual information wherein corresponding constraints or buying criteria may be generated from an analysis of such textual information. Additionally, such constraints (or buying criteria) may be associated with degrees of importance as described hereinabove. Further description of constraints follows hereinbelow.

A potential buyer may provide the following types of quantitative information, e.g., the real estate transaction should be financed via a 30 year fixed mortgage with housing payments no more than $3,000 per month having a price less than $550,000; the property should be in a low crime neighborhood, within 2 hours driving of an International airport, wherein the property is a single family detached residence having 5 bedrooms, 3+ bathrooms, and a double/triple car garage. Note, each of these characteristics can be likely evaluated using conventional real estate information about properties (e.g., a multiple listing service) in combination with, e.g., census data, local crime data, and well known geographical information systems such as Google Maps. However, additional real estate purchasing criteria may be requested of the potential buyer or client, wherein such additional criteria can be also evaluated (e.g., by the profile evaluator 84, FIG. 1A) using available data from various data sources. In particular, a potential buyer may be asked questions for identifying what are the characteristics of a property that are not acceptable. For example, a potential buyer may respond that attached housing is unacceptable, properties within 1 block of a major thorough fare are unacceptable, properties outside of one or more zip codes are unacceptable, etc. It is believed that requesting such unacceptability criteria substantially increases the efficiency of property selection. In particular, such negative constraints can be at least as important as other more positive types of constraints in efficiently selecting properties for the potential buyer to visit.

Additionally, the potential buyer may also prefer properties that are within a desired range of driving time/distance to work, school(s), church and/or friends/family. Evaluations on these (and similar characteristics) may require the client to identify specific locations (e.g., work address, church address, etc) referred to as “anchor points” hereinbelow. Data for such additional quantitative geolocation constraints can be structured for efficient evaluation relative to a particular potential property. However, since such data is in general particular to a client, it may not be previously associated with data of properties. None-the-less, such additional quantitative constraints may be evaluated using processes similar (if not necessarily identical) to those used for evaluating client constraints related to well known locations such as major thorough fares/rapid transit sites (e.g., a constraint such as “within 2 miles of a major thorough fare/rapid transit site, and at least 1 block away from the major thorough fare/rapid transit site”), or “within two miles of the university”, or “within 1 hour driving time of the airport LAX”.

Moreover, a client may provide additional information that may be in the form “ad hoc” constraints, such as a quantitative and/or qualitative constraint for which no predetermined corresponding constraint evaluator is available. In particular, there may be no constraint evaluator due to the client requesting that candidate properties satisfy criteria for which the data to evaluate a corresponding constraint requires: (a) an interpretation of available quantitative data to evaluate the ad hoc subjective/qualitative constraint, and/or (b) an evaluation of client specific (quantitative/qualitative) constraints that are substantially unique to the client. For example, a client may state that he/she is interested in a property not located on an earthquake fault line, or in an area where the drinking water is of high quality, or reports of bears and/or cougars are low, or where it is “quiet”, or where “the neighborhood has a lot of trees”, or “not near a major electrical power transmission line”, etc. The following ways are provided for processing and evaluating such constraints (e.g., by the profile evaluator 84, FIG. 1A):

-   -   (a) For such constraints that are area or property based,         wherein data for identifying properties and/or areas is known to         be available (e.g., identifying earthquake fault lines or major         electrical power transmission lines), designated experts and/or         databases may be used to identify areas or properties satisfying         such constraints. In particular, such experts or and/or         databases maybe accessed on a pay for access basis.     -   (b) For constraints that are not easily evaluated, if one or         more potential properties appear otherwise likely candidates for         purchase by the buyer, the potential buyer's agent (if there is         one or the potential buyer otherwise) may be notified about         properties satisfying substantially all other constraints.     -   (c) In one embodiment, listing agents (and/or property owners)         of candidate properties satisfying substantially all other         constraints (except the ad hoc constraints) for a potential         buyer may be notified requesting them to respond (e.g., via         email) if such candidate properties are believed to satisfy such         ad hoc constraints. Note, that it may be in the interest of such         listing agents to provide correct information (if they respond)         in that in one embodiment, listing agents clearly and/or         consistently providing false or misleading information may be         identified for alerting potential buyers to listings from such         agents or owners;     -   (d) Candidate properties and/or areas can be selected that have         properties that are similar to properties purchased by previous         buyers providing similar constraints for identifying candidate         properties. Some of the information needed to determine such         similarities may not be easily obtainable. However, if property         purchasers are given a rebate after purchase for filling out an         extensive questionnaire about their experiences at or with the         purchased property, e.g., 6 months after purchase, it is         believed that such information may be acquired overtime.         Alternatively or optionally, for embodiments of the present real         estate transaction system, wherein logs of both purchased         properties and rejected properties are kept, similarities         between potential buyers may be additionally determined on what         properties were rejected by similar potential buyers. Thus,         e.g., if fifteen properties are identified as satisfying (or         sufficiently satisfying) substantially all of a potential         buyer's constraints, then such properties may be ranked for         presentation (and/or presumed desirability) to the potential         buyer according to how closely each such property matches         properties purchased previously by similar potential buyers,         and/or how dissimilar each such property is to properties         rejected by similar potential buyers. Accordingly, it is         believed that as more and more data on potential buyers is         gathered, the real estate transaction system disclosed herein         will become increasingly more effective in identifying         properties that are of interest to potential buyers.

In at least one embodiment of the real estate transaction system disclosed herein, one or more of the following operators may be provided.

-   -   1. “Rough Similarity” Operator: This operator (e.g., provided by         the profile evaluator 84, FIG. 1 ) determines two or more         populations of properties that are “roughly” similar to a         particular actual or hypothetical property (merely “current         property” hereafter), and wherein the properties in a first of         the populations are properties that sold in a specified time         frame, e.g., the last 2 years (for “hot” markets could be 3         months), and the properties in a second population (probably         much smaller) that were for sale did not sell and were withdrawn         from the market within the time frame (note, this second         population may give an upper bound on what is not sellable at a         particular price). One or more additional populations of         properties may be used such as: (i) properties currently         available, and (ii) properties that have been on the market an         extended period of time, e.g., greater than a standard deviation         from the mean time for selling a property within a particular         time period. Note that the second population and properties that         have been on the market for an extended time period are believed         indicative of property prices that are too high for the market         conditions. To determine such populations of properties, in         addition to any specified time frame for selling (or not         selling), the following selection criteria may be used for         selecting previously sold properties depending on the population         of properties desired:         -   (A) ±1 or the same as the desired number of bedrooms,             bathrooms, and/or common rooms,         -   (B) ±1 of garage car accommodations,         -   (C) ±20% of house size (square footage),         -   (D) ±20% of asking price at the time of property sale             (adjusted for appreciation/deappreciation), and/or         -   (E) ±20% of lot size,         -   (F) Condition of property (if available),         -   (G) same or similar: quality school district, (if             available),         -   (H) selling price (if sold) of no more than 20% above (or             below) what the client is willing to pay,         -   (I) asking price (e.g., if not sold) of no more than 20%             above what the client is willing to pay,         -   (J) area characteristics (urban, suburban, rural, mountain,             desert, river front, “near” city, “near” ocean, out of food             plain).         -   (K) Within or outside of a given area(s), e.g.,             -   i. a specified school district, zip code, city or                 county,             -   ii. a specified client defined geofenced area,             -   iii. within a given driving (walking, or bicycling)                 distance (or time of travel) of a specified location,                 product or service,             -   iv. a specified neighborhood, a specified urban,                 suburban, rural, mountain, desert, or riverfront area,             -   v. “near” a specified city, “near” the ocean,             -   vi. a designated environmental area (e.g., outside of a                 flood plain, in a redevelopment area, etc.)     -    Note, the above selection criteria of (A) through (K) were         chosen since it is believed that these criteria should be         relatively easy to obtain, and are likely to be indicative of         most criteria for home buyers. Of course, it may be that         additional/alternative property selection criteria may be used.         For example, other property area characteristics (e.g., no         mountain lion sightings within three miles of the target         property within the last five years), and/or financial         transaction characteristics may be used (e.g., mortgage rates,         owner carry, etc.), and such additional characteristics (i.e.,         selection criteria) may be settable for a particular client         (e.g., potential buyer), in particular by the client's real         estate agent, or by the client him/herself.         -   In one embodiment of the present real estate transaction             system, a previously sold property may be provided in an             initial version of the first population if the previously             sold property satisfies at least a predetermined selection             threshold (e.g., a percentage) of the number of selection             criteria for the first population, e.g., the various             criteria in (A) through (K) immediately above. The             percentage may be in the range of, e.g., 75% to 100%, and             more preferrably 80% to 90%. Accordingly, a property             similarity evaluation function is defined, which in one             embodiment merely sums up the number of selection criteria             that the property satisfies. However, any of the selection             criteria may be identified as mandatory to be satisfied.             Thus, for the first population, the requirement that the             property be sold in the timeframe must be satisfied.         -   However, other similarity evaluation functions may be used,             wherein different selection criteria have different             weightings. In one embodiment, each of the selection             criteria may be ranked or weighted for the client according             to a perceived importance to the client. Thus, instead of             counting each such selection criterion as equal, relative             weights (w₁, w₂, w₃, w_(n)) may be applied, wherein, w₁ is             the weighting for the i^(th) selection criteria, wherein             Σ_(i=1) ^(n)w_(i)=1, and wherein a property (P) is selected             if (i) it satisfies certain mandatory conditions such as             sold (or not sold) within a particular time frame, and (ii)             Σ_(i=1) ^(n)χ_(i)w_(i)≥(a predetermined selection threshold,             such as 0.8) where

$\chi_{i} = \left\{ \begin{matrix} {{0\mspace{14mu}{if}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu} i^{th}\mspace{14mu}{selection}\mspace{14mu}{criterion}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{not}\mspace{14mu}{satisfied}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{property}\mspace{14mu} P},{and}} \\ {1\mspace{14mu}{if}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu} i^{th}\mspace{14mu}{selection}\mspace{14mu}{criterion}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{satisfied}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{property}\mspace{14mu}{P.}} \end{matrix} \right.$

-   -   -   In addition, one or more selection filters may be used,             wherein certain selection criteria may be used to categorize             properties of a population. Thus, for a particular client, a             selection criterion that the selected sold properties be             zoned for horses may be used to categorize all properties             into those zoned for horses and those not zoned for horses.             Note, such filters may be applied to a requested population             of properties for viewing the properties according to             categories (e.g., properties with swimming pools versus             properties without swimming pools).         -   In one embodiment, the present real estate transaction             system may be configured for use with commercial properties             rather than residential, then the selection criteria may be             substantially different. For example, the above residential             selection criteria may be replaced with criteria such as:             total square footage of leasable space, number of parking             places, age of structure(s), the class of the structure(s)             (e.g., class A or class B), the type of property (e.g.,             apartments, retail, manufacturing, mixed use), financing             available, current occupancy rate, current tenants, tenant             lease renewal information, projections of revenues             increases/decreases, projections for repairs and             maintenance, etc.         -   Once the initial version of the first population of             properties is determined, it is desirable, when possible, to             adjust this initial version to obtain an appropriately             representative sample, wherein the sample size is large             enough so that it is likely to be representative of the             current real estate market for the current property being             considered by the client. In general, it is believed that             the size of the first population should preferably include             between thirty and one hundred properties with a mean number             of selection criteria matching the current property being             80% or higher. If there are substantially more sold             properties selected, then all such properties may be used,             or the selection threshold may be increased, or an             additional selection filter may be used. If there are             substantially less sold properties selected, then the             selection threshold may be decreased, or the time frame may             be increased, or any selection filters may be deactivated or             modified (or any combination of these alternatives). Note             that if the selection criteria are weighted (e.g., as             described above), the relative weightings can also be             adjusted.         -   Note that the second population (or any other population) of             roughly similar properties can be obtained similarly to the             first population. However, note that the time frame may             vary. For example, it may be desirable to determine asking             prices for roughly similar properties that have been for             sale for over, e.g., 4 months, and either are currently on             the market, or have been withdrawn from the market within             the past 3 months, since the asking price for such             properties may be an indication of property prices that are             too high.         -   In one embodiment, the roughly similar operator may be             activated to determine the first population for the time             frame of the last six months.         -   In one embodiment, a property selection wizard may be             activated to assist the client and/or agent in determining             property selection criteria. Such a wizard may use a client             profile (residing in the user & property profiles database             80, FIG. 1A) along with client related selection criteria             for determining actual property selection criteria. For             example, given a client's preferences for a property, such a             wizard may access various suppliers of demographic             information such as Claritas whose address is 5375 Mira             Sorrento Place, Suite 400, San Diego, Calif. 92121, and             which may be also contacted via the Internet at             www.claritas.com (further information on demographic reports             from Claritas is provided in Appendix A hereinbelow).             Moreover, such a wizard may have access to a database             compiled from various local public (or proprietary) data             sources such as is provided in the Philadelphia, Pa. area by             Avencia Inc. 340 North 12th Street, Suite 402, Philadelphia,             Pa. 19107 which may be also contacted via the Internet at             www.avencia.com. In particular, the database may provide the             following information: neighborhood characterizations (e.g.,             heavily treed neighborhood, within 0.25 miles of a park,             recreation center, shopping, etc.), crime statistics for             neighborhoods, home sales prices and trends, categorizations             of the type of people who live in the neighborhood (e.g.,             zip code) such as provided by MyBestSegments at             www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Defalut.jsp. Such a wizard             may be used to build a model of the client's “ideal” house             that is affordable by the client. Accordingly, in addition             to typical questions related the ideal house statistics             (e.g., square footage, etc.), the wizard may query the             client for responses to questions such as:         -   (a) Which rooms of your ideal (and affordable) house do you             prefer to be especially nice?         -   (b) Is an attached dwelling acceptable if the interior is             acceptable?         -   (c) What size of yard or acreage do you prefer?         -   (d) What distance from a major thoroughfare is acceptable?         -   (e) How important is quietness at home to you?         -   (f) What neighborhood (e.g., within ¼ mile of house)             population density is preferable? Acceptable?         -   (g) What are the preferred characteristics of the             neighborhood?             -   (i) Retirement oriented,             -   (ii) Many couples with young children,             -   (iii) Many singles activities nearby (e.g., within 3                 miles of house),             -   (iv) Lots of trees in the neighborhood (e.g., within ¼                 mile of house),             -   (v) Nearby park (e.g., within 1 mile of house),             -   (vi) Nearby recreational sites (e.g., within 1 mile of                 house).

    -    In one embodiment, the wizard may access a plurality of expert         models related to various aspects of real estate purchases. For         example, it is believed that for most home (more generally real         estate) purchasers, an expert model for each of the following         categories will suffice for identifying such an ideal property:         -   (1-a) Property Interior: E.g., square footage, quality of             finish, layout, number of floors, number of bedrooms,             bathrooms, environmental conditioning (type of heating, air             conditioning, etc.);         -   (1-b) Property exterior: E.g., Garage/parking lot size, size             of yard/grounds, foliage present, overall condition of             exterior, exterior condition of house/building(s), condition             of walkways and parking places, condition of any fencing;         -   (1-c) Estimated property utilities and ongoing maintenance.         -   (1-d) Property maintenance estimated expenses: E.g., home             owner association fees, repair costs for one to five years,             etc.         -   (1-e) Neighborhood characteristics: E.g., Urban, Suburban,             rural, demographics of neighborhood (e.g., professional,             retired, singles, married, income per household, racial             mix), newly constructed, established neighborhood,             neighborhood population density, proportion of renters vs.             owners, crime statistics, noise pollution, air pollution,             etc.;         -   (1-f) Transportation: E.g., accessibility of thoroughfares,             mass transit; client total time in transit to: (i)             work, (ii) school(s), (iii) recreational facilities, (iv)             friends and family, (v) other client specific destinations.         -   (1-g) Schools: E.g., quality of school(s),             distance/transportation time to school(s), cost of             school(s).         -   (1-h) Products/Services: E.g., accessibility of shopping in             terms of distance/transportation time from property.         -   (1-i) Recreational sites: E.g., accessibility thereof in             terms of distance/transportation time and cost.         -   (1-j) Entertainment facilities: E.g., accessibility of             movies, theatre, museums, zoos, etc. in terms of             distance/transportation time from property.         -   (1-k) Religious/friends/family activities: E.g.,             accessibility thereof in terms of distance/transportation             time and cost.

    -    Accordingly, for each of the above categories (1-a) through         (1-k), there may be an expert model devoted to determining what         is likely to be best suited to the client for the category.         Moreover, each such expert model may output at least three         collections of information including a characterization of a         property that appears best suited to the client given the         financial and time resources the client can devote to the         property related characteristics of the property.

    -   2. Similarity Operator: The present similarity operator (e.g.,         provided by the property evaluator & comparator, FIG. 1 ) is for         finding properties that are “similar” to a specified property         (this may be a hypothesized property or an actual property),         wherein the similar property is currently for sale. In         particular, this operator may be functionally equivalent to the         rough similarity operator above, except that an importance of         each of the selection criteria may be assessed. For example, a         client may be viewing a property and wants to view others that         are “similar”, or a desired hypothetical one or more properties         have been input for obtaining “similar” properties. The         functionality of such a similarity operator may be as follows:         -   (a) Perform the roughly similar operator with the time frame             being the present time for obtaining a population of             properties that are currently for sale, and satisfying a             relaxed version of one or more of the designated client             related selection criteria that are not mandatory. For             example, for client preferred house size of 3500 to 4000             square feet, the relaxed version may be 3000 to 4500 square             feet;         -   (b) Perform the roughly similar operator, with the time             frame being the present time and with the same or additional             selection criteria as used in (a) immediately above, for             obtaining an additional more restrictive population of             properties that are currently for sale, and satisfying             exactly the designated client related selection criteria             (i.e., within the predetermined selection threshold as             described hereinabove);         -   (c) Rank the properties in the population of properties             retrieved in (b) according to their evaluation by the             similarity evaluation function;         -   (d) Output additional information indicating the relative             importance of each of the selection criteria in excluding             properties retrieved in (a) immediately above from being             in (b) immediately above. For example, a property P             retrieved in (a) that is excluded from being retrieved             in (b) due to undesirable house square footage and being             outside of a particular zip code may raise the importance of             each of these two selection criteria for restricting the             number of similar properties. Note that it is believed that             this additional information assists in providing the client             and/or agent with information on how to relax the selection             criteria for obtaining a larger population of similar             properties. For example, the importance of each selection             criterion of (b) may be the number of properties obtained             from (a) that do not satisfy the selection criterion.         -   In one embodiment, when there are a large number of             properties that satisfy the selection criteria of the             similarity operator (e.g., more than 100), a more             restrictive property search may also be performed, wherein             one or more selection criteria ranges are tightened.             Accordingly, upon presenting information about, e.g., how             many more properties are likely to be restricted by each             additionally restricted selection criteria, the client or             agent may make an intelligent determination as to what one             or more selection criteria to further restrict to obtain a             better population of similar properties.         -   In one embodiment, when a search for similar properties is             conducted, an address for a current property may be input,             wherein subsequently, data for the current property is             retrieved and automatically populates property search             selection criteria for the similarity search. Accordingly,             by using the (any) client's selection criteria, and then             amending such criteria with criteria satisfied by the             current property, properties that are similar to the current             property and satisfy the client's selection criteria may be             retrieved. Note, that when the data for the current property             is in conflict with the client's (or agent's) selection             criteria, the client (or agent) may be notified of the             conflict and requested to provide input for resolving such             conflict. The client (or agent) may be provided with at             least two options when such a conflict arises: (i) accept             the client's (or agent's) selection criterion, (ii) accept             the corresponding selection criterion obtained from the             current property.

    -   3. Price Operator: Compute one or more of: a “too high” price, a         “fair” price, and/or a “good” price, and/or a “great” price for         a specified property based on “roughly similar” properties that         have recently sold (perhaps adjusted for         appreciation/depreciation). This may be determined using the         similar properties obtained from activation of the similarity         operator above. E.g., (a) properties whose price is in a second         standard deviation of prices (on the low price side) may be         identified as a “great” price, (b) properties whose price is not         in (a) but is within a first standard deviation of prices and         below the average price may be identified as a “good” price, (c)         properties whose price is not in (a) and (b) but is within a         first standard deviation of prices and above the average price         may be identified as a “fair” price, and (d) properties whose         price is not in (a)-(c) may be identified as a “too high” price.

    -   4. “Similar, but” operator: This operator (e.g., provided by the         property evaluator & comparator, FIG. 1 ) allows a user (client         or agent) to identify a property (e.g., by address), wherein         subsequently, data for the property populates property search         selection criteria. For example, a client wants a property that         is “similar” to an actual property, except for some         characteristic(s) (e.g., bigger kitchen, bigger garage, bigger         master bedroom, in the mountains, “better neighborhood, lower         price, etc.). This may be accomplished by: providing an         additional one or more mandatory selection criteria, and         performing a new search. Note, this may be just a modification         of a previous search. So searches and/or parameters therefor can         be saved.

    -   5. “Likely Sale Price(s)” operator: This operator may be used         for both buyers and sellers. This may assist in both weeding out         clients that are really not interested in buying and/or selling,         and for determining clients that are really interested in         buying. Such an operator may also provide a way of making a         client's property criteria more “realistic” for the price the         client can or desires to pay. This operator can be computed by         determining the first population of “similar” properties that         have sold as above, then using the Price Operator above, compute         price ranges for the “too high” price, “fair” price, and/or         “good” price, and/or “great” price.

    -   6. “Suggested Offer” operator: For buying a property, this         operator suggests an offer/counter offer. It is similar to the         Likely Sale Price operator above. However, client/agent         indicates the category of price, e.g., “fair” price, and/or         “good” price, and/or “great” price. Then a suggested offer for         the current property is computed. Note, the offer may take into         account: (a) a clustering of sale prices for similar properties         (e.g., it may be that although the property is listed at $409K,         that virtually all properties in the $410K to $401K range have         sold for less than $400K, and in particular, in the range of         $399K to $395K). Accordingly, suggested sale range may be from         $399K to $395K, plus, e.g., once a sale price is selected, a         suggested first offer price decrease of, say,         $409K*((average difference between asking price and sale price         for similar properties)/($409K−selected price)         Description of Interaction Between Portal 20 and User

The following is a high level pseudo code description of interactions between the portal 20 and a client or agent when attempting to locate properties of interest to the client or agent.

-   -   BUYING_LIMIT←Receive an estimate of an amount the client can to         pay for a property;     -   Receive zero, one or more anchor points that are used for         determining property and/or property area desirability; e.g.,         the greater the distance from the anchor points, the less         desirable the property/area, and the closer to the anchor         points, the greater the desirability of the property/area; in         one embodiment, each anchor point may be provided with a max/min         distance or transportation time from the property/area to the         anchor point;     -   If (requested by client/agent) then         -   Output characteristics of selected property areas and/or             areas that satisfy the criteria of the anchor points; such             characteristics may include, e.g., household income,             proportion by age, educational background, ethnic mix,             school rankings, estimated driving time/distance to client's             workplace, crime statistics (e.g., relative number of             burglaries, assaults, drug arrests in comparison to other             areas), population density, owners vs. renters in area,             and/or noise pollution (or lack thereof);     -   AREAS←Receive from the client/agent an identification of one or         more geographical areas for the property;     -   RQMTS←Receive client's requirement(s) for property related         characteristics that are identified as must be satisfied, e.g.,         any of the characteristics in the categories (1-a) through (1-k)         above;     -   Until client/agent quits DO /* the following steps */         -   PROPERTIES←Perform search for candidate properties             satisfying all constraints for the client, including the             client's RQMTS in AREAS that satisfy the (any) anchor point             constraints, and the client's BUYING_LIMIT;         -   If (there is one or more candidate properties in PROPERTIES)             then             -   For each candidate property (CP) DO                 -   present information on CP to the client/agent;                 -   NEGATIVES←for CP, receive any input provided by the                     client/agent regarding drawbacks of the property                     that would prevent a purchase offer being made on                     the property; in one embodiment, for each such                     negative, the negative may be categorized by the                     client/agent as to which of the categories (1-a)                     through (1-k) it applies and the characteristics                     within the selected category; additionally, a                     preferred improvement that would reduce the                     negative, e.g., negatives for a property might be                     “neighbors too close”, “property too close to                     freeway”, “too many stairs in house” (note, FIG. 3                     shows a type of user interface for flexibly                     receiving client/agent responses), and for each                     negative, a corresponding additional constraint may                     be determined and the relative importance of the                     additional constraint, in comparison to constraints                     already obtained, is obtained;                 -   Save, print or transmit the property information if                     requested by the client/agent;         -   Else /* if no properties obtained from search */             -   If not previously obtained, request client/agent to                 order how the constraints (for anchor points, AREAS,                 RQMTS and any additional constraints from negative                 property characteristics identified above) should be                 relaxed so that additional candidate properties can be                 presented; in one embodiment, all current constraints                 are shown to the client/agent and with each constraint                 an indication of the likely number of additional                 properties that can be presented by relaxing the                 constraint; note, with each change to the constraints                 (or upon the client/agent's request) a new search for                 candidate properties is performed with the new set of                 constraints for presenting to the client/agent an                 updated number of candidate properties satisfying all                 constraints;     -   END UNTIL DO;     -   If requested by the client/agent then suggest alternative         properties by activation of the expert models;

FIGS. 2A and 2B show a flowchart providing high level steps for presenting property information to a client or agent.

Client and Property Profiles

The agent/client can also use the portal 20 to access information on newly listed properties for determining if he/she should visit the property.

The agent may provide the portal 20 with an agent property profile, wherein the profile includes filters that prevent certain agent notifications for new property listings under certain circumstances, e.g., if the asking price is outside of a predetermined price range, if the property location is outside of one or more agent selected geographical areas, etc. However, such filters associated with the agent's profile may be overridden if a client of the agent has a current property profile that identifies a property that would otherwise be filtered by the agent's profile. Accordingly, an agent may be notified of a plurality of property profiles, wherein most of the property profiles in the collection are profiles exported to the agent from particular clients. Thus, an agent may be notified of any property listing (new or old) if the property satisfies a client profile exported by the client (and accepted by the agent). Moreover, the agent may have a select group of properties that are not currently publicly available, and the agent can provide information on these properties so that such information is made only available to the agent's clients (or the agent's real estate office clients) for a predetermined time prior to making such properties publicly available to other agents and their clients. Accordingly, new property listings in the database 72 of currently available properties are partitioned into at least the following viewing groups:

-   -   (a) Publicly viewable by all registered users of the portal 20.     -   (b) Viewable only by an agent and the agent's clients (generally         each property listing of this group has an expiration timer         associated therewith wherein once the timer expires, the         property listing becomes publicly viewable.     -   (c) Viewable by those of (b) above, plus additional agents         (identified by the agent having the listing) and/or their         clients.

When using the services of the portal 20, a registered user (agent or client) may create and/or select one or more of his/her property profiles and store such profiles at the portal for determining any properties that satisfy at least one such profile. In one embodiment, the user may store a large plurality of such property profiles (e.g., 30 or more). For example, a potential buyer may have a different property profile for each of commercial real estate properties, apartment complexes, personal residence properties, vacation home(s), undeveloped land, etc. Moreover, a user may have one or more temporary or experimental profiles stored at the portal 20 as well as one or more that are exported to another user (e.g., a client's agent).

Agents may create proprietary property profiles for their clients that assist these clients in identifying properties of interest. Such proprietary profiles may be created or generated substantially via the agent's personal experience (e.g., manually by the agent) and/or with the assistance of various client personality and/or demographic profiling tools. An agent (or an agent's office) may keep client and property profiles on clients that buy a property, and clients that do not buy a property. If a client profile (having some preferred property characteristics) for a current client sufficiently matches a corresponding composite client profile of a particular group of past clients that have purchased properties, then if the property characteristics of the purchased properties by members of the group can be correlated with the property purchases, then such property characteristics may be predictive of other clients purchasing properties having the same or similar property characteristics. Note that since any correlation between a composite profile for a property purchasing client group, and the satisfied property preferences is probabilistic, at least some property profiles generated may be based on a fuzzy logic model or a statistical model. For example, a principal components statistical analysis may be performed for identifying property profile characteristics (if any) that are predictive of a purchase by clients having a similar client profiles. Such client profiles for past clients that actually purchased a principal residence may include the following: (i) client mortgage amount range preference for which client is qualified, (ii) educational background, (iii) household size, (iv) ages and number of children living with client, (v) approximate total cost, time, and/or distance acceptable for expending on transportation from a desired property to frequently visited locations such as workplace, schools, friends, family, shopping, etc., (vi) environmental preferences for property such as urban, suburban, mountains, desert, proximity to a body of water, (ocean, lake, river), etc., (vii) preferred property location(s) (zip code, city, neighborhood, etc.), (viii) urgency of need for property purchase, (ix) previous experience in purchasing a similar property. Accordingly, if such client profile characteristics can be determined to correlate with particular property characteristics of properties that were actually purchased by past clients, then such property characteristics may be used (e.g., in combination with desired property characteristics in, e.g., the client profile) for generating a more nearly complete property profile that may be predictive of a property the client may purchase. Thus, by determining which of a plurality of group profiles (each such profile for a group of past clients having similar client profiles, and that purchased properties) is most similar to a current client's profile, at least some property characteristics may be likely predictive of the client purchasing a property having the property characteristics. For example, for a client that is a single mother having two children that is qualified for a $250,000 house mortgage, and wishes to live in a suburban area within one mile access to mass transit into the center of a particular city, and further wishes the property to be a detached residence having at least 3 bedrooms in a relative low crime area, it may be that previous “similar” clients (e.g., single mothers, etc.) that have purchased properties have generally purchased properties with low maintenance yards, gas furnaces, and within ½ mile of a mass transit stop. Accordingly, the single mother's agent may configure the portal 20, and in particular, the profile evaluator 84 so that if the mother's property profile returns more than, e.g., some predetermined number of properties, say 10 properties, that property selections satisfying the agent's amended property profile may be also presented to the mother (or she may be notified that the agent suggests she review the properties resulting from the client's property profile generated by the agent). Accordingly, the agent has the capability to provide property suggestions to a client based on purchasing experience of past clients without requiring the client to schedule a time to discuss the client's property objectives and preferences. Note that it is possible that an initial client profile (including a collection of property preferences supplied by a client) can indicate that the client is unlikely to purchase a property consistent with the client's property preferences. Accordingly, the agent may configure the profile evaluator 84 so that the agent can supply an explanation as to why properties different from those preferred by the client should be considered by the client. For example, a client qualified for a $2 million mortgage having 4 children and wishing to buy a suburban single family primary residence within a particular set of zip codes may be determined by the agent to be currently priced out of the market in these zip codes unless the client is willing to purchase a smaller house or live in another zip code. Accordingly, the agent may select alternative zip codes for the selecting properties corresponding with the client's other property preferences. Moreover, there may be circumstances where no properties are retrieved by the client's active property profile (e.g., due to the active profile being too restrictive), and any available agent property profiles also being inappropriate (e.g., the client indicates that such profiles appear to be inappropriate). In such cases, the agent may be notified via, e.g., email, instant messaging, etc. Additionally, since it is likely that such property profiles are too restrictive or in conflict with current property market conditions, the client may be requested to relax one or more property constraints in the active profile. In particular, the client may be presented with various (or all) property constraints in a property profile and requested to relax one of more of the constraints, and the client may obtain immediate feedback from the portal 20 regarding, e.g., the number of new properties not presented to the client previously.

Moreover, if corresponding client profile data is also retained on clients that did not purchase a property, together with corresponding property profile data used by such non-purchasing clients, and the number of matches for such property profiles, then it may be possible to statistically predict after a certain number of property profiles are used by the client whether the client is more or less likely to purchase a property than another client. Accordingly, an agent may wish to allocate his/her time to clients that are identified as being more likely to purchase a property. However, since the agent can provide clients determined to be less likely to purchase with the services of the portal 20, the agent may still retain such clients.

Since certain property profiles may be designated as the active profiles (also referred to as “exported” profiles herein) for notifying the client and his/her agent of newly available properties for sale, changes in such active property profiles over time may be also used in predicting a likelihood of the client purchasing a property prior to the agent's contract with the client expiring. For example, substantially no changes in a client's property profile to reflect changing market conditions (e.g., changing to a “sellers market”) may be indicative that the client is unlikely to purchase a property. Alternatively, when a client's active property profile progressively becomes more focused, the agent may likely assume that the client has determined what property characteristics are desired, and accordingly the agent may determine that additional time should be spent assisting the client in purchasing a property. However, if a client's active profile changes focus repeatedly to substantially different populations of properties, e.g., from 3 bedroom condominiums of urban areas in a first active profile to 4+ bedroom houses in suburban areas in a subsequent second profile to mountain cabin in yet a third profile, then the agent may quite likely assume the client unclear in his/her property purchasing objectives, and accordingly may contact the client to offer advice. Note, that since the present real estate transaction system allows clients to investigate properties for sale substantially autonomously from their real estate agent, the agent can afford to service a large number of clients since it is likely that only a few of the agent's clients, at any given time, are at the stage of requiring a significant amount of the agent's time, e.g., for submitting an offer on a property and/or negotiating a contract and/or closing on a property. Accordingly, the present real estate transaction system may provide agents with access to tools that assist an agent with determining distinctions between various versions of the active property profiles for a given client. In particular, such a tool may identify for the agent: (i) a restriction of one or more property constraints of the active profile, (ii) a relaxing of one or more property constraints of the active profile, (iii) a changing of property populations, e.g., via changing one or more desired property characteristics to values that will select substantially all properties from a property population that has little similarity to a property population from which properties were previously selected by a previous version of the property profile (e.g., changing a property profile characteristic from requiring an urban property to requiring a rural property, or from requiring only 3 bedrooms to requiring at least 5 bedrooms, or from within 2 miles of a university to an area at least 5 miles from the university). Note that since clients (and their agents) can experiment by generating non-active property profiles for determining what types of properties are available, it is believed that only a few (possibly only one) active property profile is generally needed per client. Thus, since the agent may only be provided with a client's active property profile, the agent is spared the task of reviewing most of the client's property investigations. Moreover, the goal of exporting an active property profile to a client's agent is believed to be a goal that will motivate clients to be more self-directed in selecting and identifying their property preferences.

The portal 20, and in particular the transaction model and profile generator 76, may provide the functionality to allow agents to generate such predictive property profiles for clients.

Moreover, since such property profiles for different agents (or groups of agents) may be based on different client characteristics, and thus the generation of property profiles may be proprietary to such agent, and the portal 20 supports the proprietary nature of such property profile generation techniques. In particular, an agent may be provided with access restricted data storage for client profile information, as well as statistical techniques for generating property profiles for clients.

Wireless Location & Real Estate Transactions

Additional wireless location real estate features of the present real estate transaction system follow.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the buyer interaction subsystem 94 (FIG. 1 ) may request tracking of a portal 20 user (e.g., an agent or other registered portal 20 user) via wireless location technologies for presenting property information to the user as he/she travels. The portal 20 (or systems associated therewith) may receive periodic locations of the user (or as requested by the user), and use such location information for determining nearby properties satisfying one or more of the user's property profiles. If the user is an agent, the user may provide identification information for identifying one or more of the agent's clients and a corresponding property profile for each client for obtaining information on nearby properties. Accordingly, an agent may be travelling about an area viewing properties with a client, or contacting potential property sellers wherein information on nearby properties is provided to the agent while in the area. This may be particularly useful in compiling or enhancing a property profile of a client. For example, the client may upon actually viewing a property and its neighborhood determine that particular features of the property are undesirable, but the neighborhood or a similar neighborhood is acceptable. Accordingly, the client's property profile may be adjusted while in the area, transmitted to the portal 20 with a request for locating the agent and client, and an additional request for any properties within the neighborhood (zip code) or similar nearby neighborhoods (e.g., within 2 miles) that satisfy the new client property profile. By iteratively editing or enhancing the client's property profile, the agent may be able to more effectively identify properties that are likely to be of interest to the client. Moreover, the agent may wish to provide a client with independent wireless access to the portal 20 so that the client can travel through areas of interest and view information on area properties. Thus, the client may request that he/she be wirelessly located periodically (or as requested by the client) for obtaining information on nearby or adjacent properties for sale. Moreover, the portal 20 may be able to suggest “similar” properties (as also described herein) to a nearby property. The processing performed may be described at a high level as follows:

-   -   Step A. The agent or client requests, via a wireless         communication device, information on nearby properties (e.g.,         within a predetermined distance, blocks, etc.) of the agent's or         client's current location, wherein the properties must satisfy a         given property profile.     -   Step B. The portal 20 receives the request, and requests a         wireless location of the agent/client from a network service         preferably associated with the wireless network to which the         agent/client's wireless communication is registered.     -   Step C. Assuming the network service is able to locate the         agent/client, the portal 20 receives the agent/client's         location, and uses this location to look up for sale properties         that are nearby the location and that satisfy the property         profile.     -   Step D. Any properties satisfying the location and property         profile constraints have their data transmitted back to the         agent/client's wireless communication device.

Real estate agents/brokers (as well as, hotels and other personal service providers, such as auto rental agencies, hotels, resorts and cruise ships) may provide an inexpensive mobile communication device (MCD) that can be used substantially only for contacting: (i) the real estate agent/broker (or personal service), (ii) emergency services, and/or (iii) receiving directions to a desired location (e.g., the estate agent/broker's place of business, a particular real estate property, or return to the personal service). Accordingly, the mobile communication device may be wirelessly located during operations (ii) and (iii) via wireless communications between the mobile communication device and a local commercial wireless service provider wherein a request to locate the mobile communication device is provided to a mapping and routing system such as provided by Mapinfo or disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,365 (which is fully incorporated herein by reference) so that the mobile communication device user may be routed safely and expeditiously to a predetermined desired location (also referred to as a “geolocation” herein). Note that data representing the location of, e.g., a property with desired real estate property characteristics, can be associated with an identification of the mobile communication device so that mobile communication device activation for receiving directions to a real estate property of interest (e.g., as in (iii) above) results in one or more audio and/or visual presentations of directions for directing the user to the property.

The mobile communication device and the mobile communication device location providing wireless network 36 (e.g., a CMRS (commercial mobile radio service provider), a PSTN (public switched telephone network) or the Internet) may also provide the MCD user with the ability to explicitly request to be substantially continuously tracked, wherein the MCD tracked locations are stored for access by those having permission (e.g., the user, parents, authorized real estate professionals and/or associates of the user). Additionally, the velocity and/or expected time of arrival at a predetermined destination may be derived from such tracking and may be provided to the user or his/her associates (e.g., employer, friends, authorized real estate professionals, and/or family). Further, note that this tracking and notification of information obtained therefrom may be provided via a commercial telephony or Internet enabled mobile communication device, or a mobile communication device in operable communication with a short messaging service; e.g., for communicating with an embodiment of the real estate transaction system disclosed herein. For example, the MCD registered owner may provide permissions for those able to access such MCD tracking information so that such information can be automatically provided to certain associates and/or provided on request to certain associates. Additionally, note that the mobile communication device and the MCD location providing wireless network may also allow the MCD user to deactivate such MCD tracking functionality. In one embodiment, an MCD user may activate such tracking for his/her mobile communication device during hours when the user can review real estate property information and/or travel to such properties, and deactivate such tracking during other times.

Further, note that this selective MCD location capability may be performed in a number of ways. For example, the mobile communication device may activate and deactivate such tracking by dialing a predetermined number (e.g., by manually or speed dialing the number) for switching between activation of a process that periodically requests a wireless location of the mobile communication device from, e.g., a wireless network. Note that the resulting MCD location information may be made available to other users at a predetermined phone number, Internet address or having sufficient validation information (e.g., a password). Alternatively, the MCD location providing wireless network may automatically activate such MCD tracking for predetermined times of the day and for predetermined days of the week. Thus, in this embodiment, the MCD location providing wireless network may provide database storage of times and days of the week for activation and deactivation of this selective MCD tracking capability that is accessible via, e.g., a network service control point (or other telephony network control points as one skilled in the art will understand), wherein triggers may be provided within the database for generating a network message requesting the commencement of tracking of the mobile communication device or the deactivation of such tracking.

In another routing related application of the present invention, a mobile communication device and the MCD location providing wireless network may provide the MCD user with functionality to register certain locations (e.g., real estate properties of interest) so that data representing such locations can be easily accessed for use at a later time. For example, the mobile communication device user may be staying at a hotel in an unfamiliar area. Accordingly, using the present capability of the real estate transaction system disclosed herein, the user can request, via his/her mobile communication device, that his/her location at the hotel be determined and registered so that it is available at a later time for routing the user back to the hotel. In fact, the user may have personal location registrations of a plurality of locations in various cities and countries so that when traveling the user has wireless access to directions to preferred locations such as his/her hotel, preferred restaurants, shopping areas, scenic areas, rendezvous points, theatres, athletic events, churches, entertainment establishments, locations of acquaintances, etc. Note, that such personal location registration information may reside primarily on the user's subscriber network, but upon the MCD user's request, his/her personal location registrations may be transmitted to another network from which the user is receiving wireless services as a roamer. Moreover, any new location registrations (or deletions) may be duplicated in the user's personal registration of the user's subscriber network. However, in some instances an MCD user may wish to retain such registered locations only temporarily while the user is in a particular area; e.g., a predetermined network coverage area. Accordingly, the MCD user may indicate (or such may be the default) that a new personal location registration be retained for a particular length of time, and/or until a location of the user is outside the area to which such new location registrations appear to be applicable. However, prior to deleting any such registrations, the MCD user may be queried to confirm such deletions. For example, if the MCD user has new location registrations for the Dallas, Tex. area, and the MCD user subsequently travels to London, then upon the first wireless location performed by the MCD user for location registration services, the MCD user may be queried as whether to save the new Dallas, Tex. location registrations permanently, for an particular length of time (e.g. 30 days), or delete all or selected portions thereof.

Other routing related applications of the present invention are for security (e.g., tracking how do I get back to my hotel safely), and, e.g., sightseeing guided tour where the is interactive depending on feedback from users

Presentation of Real Estate Properties to a Prospective Buyer

Presentation of real estate property information may be directed to an mobile communication device according to its location. In at least some studies it is believed that mobile communication device users do not respond well to unsolicited wireless advertisement whether location based or otherwise. However, in response to certain user queries for locally available merchandise, certain advertisements may be viewed as more friendly. Thus, by allowing an MCD user to contact, e.g., a wireless real estate property information portal by voice or via wireless Internet, and describe certain products or services desired (e.g., via interacting with an automated speech interaction unit), the user may be able to describe and receive (at his/her mobile communication device) audio and/or visual presentations of such products or services that may satisfy such a user's request. For example, a user may enter a request: “I need a Hawaiian shirt, who has such shirts near here?”

In the area of real estate, the present invention has advantages both for the MCD user (as well as the wireline user), and for real estate property providers that are nearby to the MCD user. For instance, an MCD user may be provided with (or request) a default set of property advertisements for an area when the MCD user enters the area, registers with a hotel in the area, or makes a purchase in the area, and/or requests information about a particular product or service in the area. Moreover, there may be different collections of advertisements for MCD users that are believed to have different demographic profiles and/or purposes for being in the area. Accordingly, an MCD whose location is being determined periodically may be monitored by an advertisement wizard such that this wizard may maintain a collection the MCD user's preferences, and needs so that when the MCD user comes near a business that can satisfy such a preference or need, then an advertisement relating to the fulfillment of the preference or need may be presented to the MCD user. However, it is an aspect of the invention that such potential real estate property presentations be intelligently selected using as much information about the user as is available. In particular, in one embodiment of the invention MCD user preferences and needs may be ordered according to importance. Moreover, such user preferences and needs may be categorized by temporal importance (i.e., must be satisfied within a particular time frame, e.g., immediately, today, or next month) and by situational importance wherein user preferences and needs in this category are less time critical (e.g., do not have to satisfied immediately, and/or within a specified time period), but if certain criteria are meet the user will consider satisfying such a preference or need. Thus, e.g., finding a Chinese restaurant for dinner may be in the temporal importance category while purchasing a bicycle and a new pair of athletic shoes may be ordered as listed here in the situational category. Accordingly, advertisements for Chinese restaurants may be provided to the user at least partially dependent upon the user's location. Thus, once such a restaurant is selected and routing directions are determined, then the advertising wizard may examine advertisements (or other available product inventories and/or services that are within a predetermined distance of the route to the restaurant for determining whether there is product or service along the route that could potentially satisfy one of the user's preferences or needs from the situational importance category. If so, then the MCD user be may provided with the option of examining such product or service information and registering the locations of user selected businesses providing such products or services. Accordingly, the route to the restaurant may be modified to incorporate detours to one or more of these selected businesses. Corresponding functionality applies to viewing real estate properties that are for sale.

Of course, an MCD user's situationally categorized preferences and needs may allow the MCD user to receive unrequested real estate advertising during other situations as well. Thus, whenever an MCD user is moving such an advertisement wizard (e.g., if activated by the user) may attempt to satisfy the MCD user's preferences and needs by presenting to the user advertisements of nearby merchants that appear to be directed to such user preferences and needs.

Accordingly, for MCD user preferences and needs, the wizard will attempt to present information (e.g., advertisements, coupons, discounts, product price and quality comparisons) related to products and/or services that may satisfy the user's corresponding preference or need: (a) within the time frame designated by the MCD user when identified as having a temporal constraint, and/or (b) consistent with situational criteria provided by the MCD user (e.g., item on sale, item is less than a specified amount, within a predetermined traveling distance and/or time) when identified as having a situational constraint. Moreover, such information may be dependent on the geolocation of both the user and a merchant(s) having such products and/or services. Additionally, such information may be dependent on a proposed or expected user route (e.g., a route to work, a trip route). Thus, items in the temporal category are ordered according how urgent must a preference or need must be satisfied, while items in the situational category may be substantially unordered and/or ordered according to desirableness (e.g., an MCD user might want a motorcycle of a particular make and maximum price, want a new car more). However, since items in the situational category may be fulfilled substantially serendipitous circumstances detected by the wizard, various orderings or no ordering may be used. Thus, e.g., if the MCD user travels from one commercial area to another, the wizard may compare a new collection of merchant products and/or services against the items on an MCD user's temporal and situational lists, and at least alerting the MCD user that there may be new information available about a user desired service or product which is within a predetermined traveling time from where the user is. Note that such alerts may be visual (e.g., textual, or iconic) displays, or audio presentations using, e.g., synthesized speech (such as “Discounted motorcycles ahead three blocks at Cydes Cycles”).

Note that the real estate advertising aspects of the present invention may be utilized by an intelligent network agent having expert knowledge about real estate which can utilize the MCD user's location (and/or anticipated locations; e.g., due to roadways being traversed) together with user preferences and needs (as well as other constraints) to both intelligently respond to user requests as well as intelligently anticipate user preferences and needs. Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention real estate advertising is user driven in that the MCD user is able to select real estate advertising based on attributes such as: merchant proximity, traffic/parking conditions, the product/service desired, quality ratings, price, user merchant preferences, product/service availability, coupons and/or discounts. That is, the MCD user may be able to determine an ordering of advertisements presented based on, e.g., his/her selection inputs for categorizing such attributes. For example, the MCD user may request real estate advertisements according to the following values: (a) within 20 minutes travel time of the MCD user's current location, (b) midrange in price, (c) currently available, and (d) no preferred additional geographical area constraints. Note that in providing real estate advertisements according to the MCD user's criteria, the present invention may have to make certain assumptions such if the MCD user does not specify a time for being at a property. Accordingly, the present invention may default the time to a range of times somewhat longer than the travel time thereby going on the assumption that MCD user will likely be traveling to an advertised merchant relatively soon. Accordingly, the present invention may also check stored data on the property to assure that the MCD user can access the property once the MCD user arrives at the property's location. Accordingly, the MCD user may dynamically, and in real time, vary such real estate advertising selection parameters for thereby substantially immediately changing the real estate advertising being provided to the user's MCD. For example, the MCD display may provide an area for entering an identification of a product/service name wherein the network determines a list of related or complementary products/services.

Note that various aspects described herein are not constrained to using the MCD user's location. In general, the MCD user's location is but one attribute that can be intelligently used for providing users with targeted real estate advertising, and importantly, real estate advertising that is perceived as informative and/or addresses current user preferences and needs. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention in are not related to a change in the MCD user's location over time also apply to stationary communication stations such home computers wherein, e.g., real estate information is accessed via the Internet. Additionally, the MCD user may be able to adjust, e.g., via iconic selection switches (e.g., buttons or toggles) and icon range specifiers (e.g., slider bars) the relevancy and a corresponding range for various purchasing criteria. In particular, once a parameter is indicated as relevant (e.g., via activating a toggle switch), a slider bar may be used for indicating a relative or absolute value for the parameter. Thus, parameter values may be for: real estate property desirability ratings (e.g., display given to highest quality), price (low comparable price to high comparable price), travel time (maximum estimated time to get to merchant), parking conditions.

Accordingly, the present invention may include the following functionality:

-   -   (a) dynamically change as the user travels from one commercial         area to another when the MCD user's location periodically         determined such that local merchants are given preference;     -   (b) routing instructions are provided to the MCD user when a         merchant is selected;     -   (c) provide dynamically generated real estate advertising that         is related to an MCD user's preferences or needs. For example,         if an MCD user wishes to purchase a new property, then such the         present invention may dynamically generate advertisements with         dining room sets therein for merchants that sell them. Note that         this aspect of the present invention is can be accomplished by         having, e.g., a predetermined collection of real estate         advertising templates that are assigned to particular areas of         an MCD user's display wherein the real estate advertising         information selected according to the item(s) that the MCD user         has expressed a preferences or desire to purchase, and         additionally, according to the user's location, the user's         preferred merchants, and/or the item's price, quality, as well         as coupons, and/or discounts that may be provided. Thus, such         displays may have a plurality of small advertisements that may         be selected for hyperlinking to more detailed real estate         advertising information related to a product or service the MCD         user desires. Note that this aspect of the present invention         may, in one embodiment, provide displays (and/or corresponding         audio information) that is similar to Internet page displays.         However, such real estate advertising may dynamically change         with the MCD user's location such that MCD user preferences and         needs for a items (including services) having higher priority         are given advertisement preference on the MCD display when the         MCD user comes within a determined proximity of the merchant         offering the item. Moreover, the MCD user may be able         dynamically reprioritize the real estate advertising displayed         and/or change a proximity constraint so that different         advertisements are displayed. Furthermore, the MCD user may be         able to request real estate advertising information on a         specified number of nearest merchants that provide a particular         category of products or services. For example, an MCD user may         be able to request real estate advertising on the three nearest         Chinese restaurants that have a particular quality rating. Note,         that such dynamically generated real estate advertising     -   (d) information about MCD user's preferences and needs may be         supplied to the present invention merchants regarding MCD user's         reside and/or travel nearby yellow subscriber merchant locations         as described hereinabove

When a mobile communication device appears to be traveling an extended distance through a plurality of areas (as determined, e.g., by recent MCD locations along an interstate that traverse a plurality of areas), then upon entering each new area having a new collection of location registrations (and possibly a new location registration wizard) may be provided. For example, a new default set of local location registrations may become available to the user. Accordingly, the user may be notified that new temporary location registrations are available for the MCD user to access if desired. For example, such notification may be a color change on a video display indicating that new temporary registrations are available. Moreover, if the MCD user has a personal profile that also is accessible by a location registration wizard, then the wizard may provide real estate advertising for local businesses and services that are expected to better meet the MCD user's tastes and needs. Thus, if such wizard knows that the MCD user prefers fine Italian food but does not want to travel more than 20 minutes by auto from his/her hotel to reach a restaurant, then advertisements for restaurants satisfying such criteria will become available to the user However, MCD users may also remain anonymous to such wizards.

Note, that by retaining MCD user preferences and needs, if permission is provided, e.g., for anonymously capturing such user information, this information could be provided to merchants. Thus, merchants can get an understanding of what nearby MCD user's would like to purchase (and under what conditions, e.g., an electric fan for less than $10). Note such user's may be traveling through the area, or user's may live nearby. Accordingly, it is a feature of the present invention to provide merchant's with MCD user preferences and needs according to whether the MCD user is a passerby or lives nearby so that the merchant can better target his/her real estate advertising.

In one embodiment, a single wizard may be used over the coverage area of a CMRS and the database of local businesses and services changes as the MCD user travels from one location registration area to another. Moreover, such a wizard may determine the frequency and when requests for MCD locations are provided to the gateway 142. For example, such databases of local businesses and services may be coincident with LATA boundaries. Additionally, the wizard may take into account the direction and roadway the mobile communication device is traveling so that, e.g., only businesses within a predetermined area and preferably in the direction of travel of the mobile communication device are candidates to have real estate advertising displayed to the MCD user.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, modifications and adaptations of these embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art. It is to be expressly understood, however, that such modifications and adaptations are within the scope of the present invention, as set forth in the claims provided hereinbelow. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for assisting in a real estate transaction, the method comprising of (A) through (C) hereinbelow: (A) first obtaining, by a computational equipment, from each of at least first and second users, user input respectively for first and second user real estate preference information for one or more real estate properties; wherein each of the first and second user real estate preference information includes data for a respective one of first and second one or more geolocation conditions for a respective one of the first and second users, each of said first and second one or more geolocation conditions for determining, from a plurality of real estate property presentations, one or more of the presentations to be presented at a respective one of first and second mobile communication devices when accessed by the first or second user respectively; wherein each of the first one or more geolocation conditions and the second one or more geolocation conditions is satisfied, for a corresponding presentation (P) of the one or more presentations, by determining that: (i) for a location (L_(CD)), the location L_(CD) being some estimated location or location along an expected future route, of the respective one of the first and second mobile communication devices, and (ii) for a property location (D_(P)), for at least one of the real estate properties associated with the corresponding presentation P, the property location D_(P) satisfies one or more of (a1), (a2), and (a3) following: (a1) within one of: a specified user travel distance of the location L_(CD), or a specified geographically identified area of the location L_(CD); (a2) within a specified expected elapsed time of travel from the location L_(CD); and (a3) nearer to the location L_(CD) than at least one other destination for accessing of the at least one real estate property; (B) obtaining, by the computational equipment, (b1) and (b2) following: (b1) a location estimate (L_(EST)) of an actual or expected future geographic location of the first mobile communication device, wherein the location estimate is dependent upon a first computation of a wireless location of the first mobile communication device, the first computation using first wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the first mobile communication device, wherein the first wireless signal propagation indicative information is wirelessly communicated between: (i) the first mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; and (b2) a second location estimate of an actual or expected future geographic location (L₂) of the second mobile communication device at a time (T), wherein the second location estimate is dependent upon a second computation of a wireless location of the second mobile communication device, the second computation using second wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the second mobile communication device, wherein the second wireless signal propagation indicative information is wirelessly communicated between: (i) the second mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; (C) each of (c1) and (c2) following, wherein for a first and a second real estate properties of the real estate properties, there are respectively first and second presentations of the plurality of real estate property presentations providing information, respectively, related to the first and second real estate properties, and the first presentation having associated therewith information used for identifying a corresponding property location (D_(P) ₁ ) for the first real estate property, and the second presentation having associated therewith information used for identifying a corresponding property location for the second real estate property: (c1) for the first real estate property such that the first one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied for the first presentation, wherein the location estimate L_(EST) is used to obtain a corresponding instance of the location L_(CD) for the first mobile communication device, obtaining first data for use in navigating the first mobile communication device to substantially the corresponding property location D_(P) ₁ , and each of (c1-1) and (c1-2) following are performed: (c1-1) for information (INF_(m)) associated with another of the plurality of presentations (P_(m)) of one of the real estate properties (REP), selecting the information INF_(m) when INF_(m) includes data for a corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) associated with the presentation P_(m), wherein for at least one location for the corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) along a first route, the first route determined using the first data, and at least the first one or more geolocation conditions of the first user real estate preference information is satisfied; and (c1-2) providing information for computing, by the computational equipment, data for a second route (R_(m)) from the location estimate L_(EST) to substantially the corresponding property location D_(P) ₁ , wherein the second route R_(m) goes substantially to the corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) as well as continuing on to the corresponding property location D_(P) ₁ ; wherein information indicative of one or more of: the second route R_(m), the first presentation, and the presentation P_(m) are transmitted to the first mobile communication device via a communications network; and (c2) (c2-1) through (c2-5) following are performed, and determining that the second one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, wherein in addition to the second one or more geolocation conditions, there is additionally associated with the second user real estate preference information additional preference information (AP), said additional preference information AP also used for determining whether the second presentation for the second real estate property is to be presented at the second mobile communication device; wherein, from the additional preference information AP, a plurality of additional conditions are obtained; (c2-1) evaluating one or more of the additional conditions using the computational equipment, the evaluation of each of the one or more additional conditions is dependent upon a corresponding real estate property characteristic that does not vary with locations of the second mobile communication device; wherein prior to at least one performance of the evaluating, prioritizing or weighting at least some of the additional conditions, or results obtained from the additional conditions, is performed for affecting the evaluation of at least one of the additional conditions; (c2-2) determining, by the computational equipment, that for the second presentation at least one of the additional conditions is not sufficiently satisfied, when evaluated, in the evaluating (c2-1), for presenting the second presentation to the second user; (c2-3) obtaining, by the computational equipment, an additional location estimate of an actual or expected future geographic location of the second mobile communication device at a different geographic location from the location estimate L₂ or at a substantially different subsequent time from the time T, such that the additional location estimate is dependent upon an additional computation of a wireless location of the second mobile communication device, the additional computation using corresponding wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the second mobile communication device, wherein the corresponding wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals are communicated wirelessly between: (i) the second mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; (c2-4) second accessing the additional preference information AP, and determining, by the computational equipment, that for the additional location estimate, and another of the real estate properties, the second one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, and the additional conditions are sufficiently satisfied for presenting a corresponding third presentation of the plurality of presentations that is for the another real estate property; (c2-5) providing, by the computational equipment, information (Inf) for computing data for a route (R₁); wherein the route R₁ includes at least one direction for use in navigating from substantially the additional location estimate to substantially the another real estate property; and transmitting information indicative of one or more of: the information Inf, and the third presentation to the second mobile communication device via a communications network; wherein one or more of the following options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied: (d1) at least one of the location estimate L_(EST) and the second location estimate L₂ is substantially continuously obtained; (d2) access is provided to one or more of real estate agents and real estate sellers to a network portal via the communications network, and the network portal receives information for the first and second real estate properties for the first and second presentations, wherein the real estate agents and the real estate sellers are not the first and second users; (d3) permission is obtained from the first user for obtaining the location estimate L_(EST); (d4) the location estimate L_(EST) is obtained as permitted by the first user; (d5) the first presentation includes one or more of: (1) price or sale terms; (2) area characteristic; (3) premise characteristic; (4) availability; (5) quality assessment (6) expenses; and (7) accessible time, for the first property; and (d6) a prediction is obtained for predicting at least one of: (1) appreciation; (2) maintenance/fix costs; (3) return on investment, and (4) utility costs, for the first property.
 2. The method of claim 1, further including: determining a first collection of real estate properties that sold in a specified time frame, at least one of the properties of the first collection is determined to have real estate property characteristics similar to one or more user desired real estate property characteristics, wherein the at least one property is identified by combining data indicative of a user supplied measurement of importance for each of the user desired real estate property characteristics.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the real estate property characteristics include a plurality of: (1) number of rooms of various categories; (2) house size; (3) asking price or adjusted asking price; (4) lot size; (5) property condition; (6) school district; (7) selling price; (8) area characteristics; (9) location within or outside of a boundary; (10) neighborhood; (11) nearness to a location; and (12) environmental area.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the boundary is a geofenced area.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied when the corresponding property location D_(P) and the location L_(CD) satisfy (a1).
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied when the corresponding property location D_(P) and the location L_(CD) satisfy (a2).
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location estimate L_(EST) is an actual location estimate of the first mobile communication device.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the location estimate L_(EST) is an expected future geographic location of the first mobile communication device.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing or weighting in (c2-1) includes identifying one of the additional conditions as being required to be satisfied when evaluated.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing or weighting in (c2-1) includes assigning a relative importance to one or more of the additional conditions; and wherein the evaluating includes computing a weighted combination of user importance values of real estate property related characteristics for determining a result from the prioritizing or weighting.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing or weighting in (c2-1) includes ordering at least some of the additional conditions for changing a population of the real estate properties used in determining one of the plurality of real estate property presentations.
 12. The method of claim 1, further including determining, by the computational equipment, a suggested initial offer for purchasing one of the real estate properties, wherein the suggested initial offer is dependent upon an outcome from a performance of determining a plurality of previously sold real estate properties that are similar, according to the additional conditions, to the one of real estate property; wherein for the previously sold real estate properties, a difference between their asking prices and their sales prices is used in determining the suggested initial offer.
 13. The method of claim 1, further including ranking, by the computational equipment, at least some of the real estate properties according to how well the at least some real estate properties satisfy the additional conditions.
 14. The method of claim 1 further including, for a user (U) of at least one of the first and second users, searching, by the computational equipment, a data storage media having data for the real estate properties, wherein identified geographical locations are provided by the user U for identifying at least one of the real estate properties in the data storage media, wherein input for the searching includes data indicative of distances or times of travel between the at least one real estate property and the geographical locations.
 15. The method of claim 1, further including, generating, by the computational equipment, a profile for the second user, wherein the generating the profile is dependent on profiles of other users, and real estate properties sold to the other users; wherein the generating includes combining: (i) data indicative of previous real estate property potential buyers having a similarity to the second user, and (ii) data indicative of at least one of the additional conditions.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the combining is dependent upon proprietary real estate property information provided by a real estate agent for the second user, wherein a change to the proprietary real estate property information changes the profile generated.
 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising computing, using the profile, data for predicting whether or not a purchase of a real estate property by the second user is likely.
 18. The method of claim 1, access is provided to one or more of real estate agents and real estate sellers to a network portal via the communications network, and the network portal receives information for the first and second real estate properties for the first and second presentations, wherein the real estate agents and the real estate sellers are not the first and second users.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the location estimate L_(EST) and the second location estimate L₂ is continuously obtained.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein permission is obtained from the first user for obtaining the location estimate L_(EST).
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein the location estimate L_(EST) is obtained as permitted by the first user.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the first presentation includes one or more of: (1) price or sale terms; (2) area characteristic; (3) premise characteristic; (4) availability; (5) quality assessment; (6) expenses; and (7) accessible time, for the first property.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein a prediction is obtained for at least one of: (1) appreciation; (2) maintenance/fix costs; (3) return on investment, and (4) utility costs, for the first property.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of the options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied.
 25. The method of claim 1, wherein most of the options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied.
 26. An apparatus for assisting in a real estate transaction, comprising: (A) a network site configured for obtaining, from each of at least first and second users, user input respectively for first and second user real estate preference information for one or more real estate properties; wherein each of the first and second user real estate preference information includes data for a respective one of first and second one or more geolocation conditions for a respective one of the first and second users, each of said first and second one or more geolocation conditions for determining, from a plurality of real estate property presentations, one or more of the presentations to be presented at a respective one of first and second mobile communication devices when accessed by the first or second user respectively; wherein, each of the first one or more geolocation conditions and the second one or more geolocation conditions is satisfied, for a corresponding presentation (P) of the one or more presentations, by determining that: (i) for some estimated location, or location along an expected future route (L_(CD)) of the respective one of the first and second mobile communication devices, and (ii) for a property location (D_(P)), for at least one of the real estate properties associated with the corresponding presentation P, the property location D_(P) satisfies one or more of (a1), (a2), and (a3) following: (a1) within one of: a specified user travel distance of the location L_(CD), or a specified geographically identified area of the location L_(CD); (a2) within a specified expected elapsed time of travel from the location L_(CD); and (a3) nearer to the location L_(CD) than at least one other destination for accessing of the at least one real estate property; (B) wherein at least one location estimator is available for providing the network site with wireless location estimates, the location estimator configured for obtaining (b1) and (b2) following: (b1) a location estimate (L_(EST)) of an actual or expected future geographic location of the first mobile communication device, wherein the location estimate is dependent upon a first computation of a wireless location of the first mobile communication device, the first computation using first wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the first mobile communication device, wherein the first wireless signal propagation indicative information is wirelessly communicated between: (i) the first mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; and (b2) a second location estimate (L₂) of an actual or expected future geographic location of the second mobile communication device at a time (T), wherein the second location estimate is dependent upon a second computation of a wireless location of the second mobile communication device, the second computation using second wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the second mobile communication device, wherein the second wireless signal propagation indicative information is wirelessly communicated between: (i) the second mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; (C) an evaluator, including one or more computational equipment, configured for performing each of (c1) and (c2) following, wherein for a first and a second real estate properties of the real estate properties, there are respectively first and second presentations of the plurality of real estate property presentations providing information, respectively, related to the first and second real estate properties, and the first presentation having associated therewith information used for identifying a corresponding property location (D_(P) ₁ ) for the first real estate property, and the second presentation having associated therewith information used for identifying a corresponding property location for the second real estate property: (c1) for the first real estate property such that the first one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied for the first presentation wherein the location estimate L_(EST) is used to obtain a corresponding instance of the location L_(CD), the evaluator configured for obtaining first data for use in navigating the first mobile communication device to substantially the corresponding property location D_(P) ₁ , and the evaluator configured for performed each of (c1-1) and (c1-2) following: (c1-1) for information (INF_(m)) associated with another of the plurality of presentations (P_(m)) of one of the real estate properties (REP), the evaluator configured for selecting the information INF_(m) when INF_(m) includes data for a corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) associated with the presentation P_(m), wherein for at least one location for the corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) along a first route, the first route determined using the first data, and at least the first one or more geolocation conditions of the first user real estate preference information is satisfied; and (c1-2) the evaluator configured for providing information for computing data for a second route (R_(m)) from the location estimate L_(EST) to substantially the corresponding property location D_(P) ₁ , wherein the second route R_(m) goes substantially to the corresponding destination D_(P) _(m) as well as continuing on to the property location D_(P) ₁ ; wherein the apparatus further includes a transmitter configured for transmitting information indicative of one or more of: the second route R_(m), a first presentation, and the presentation P_(m) to the first mobile communication device via a communications network; and (c2) the evaluator configured for performing each of (c2-1) through (c2-5) following, and the evaluator configured for determining that the second one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, wherein in addition to the second one or more geolocation conditions, there is additionally associated with the second user real estate preference information additional preference information (AP), said additional preference information AP also used for determining whether a second presentation for the second real estate property is to be presented at the second mobile communication device; wherein, from the additional preference information AP, a plurality of additional conditions are obtained; (c2-1) the evaluator configured for evaluating one or more of the additional conditions, the evaluation of each of the one or more additional conditions is dependent upon a corresponding real estate property characteristic that does not vary with locations of the second mobile communication device; wherein prior to the evaluator performing at least one instance of the evaluating, a prioritizing or weighting of at least some of the additional conditions, or results is obtained for affecting the evaluation of at least one of the additional conditions; (c2-2) the evaluator configured for determining, for the second presentation, whether at least one of the additional conditions is not sufficiently satisfied when evaluated by the evaluator in the evaluating (c2-1); (c2-3) the evaluator configured for obtaining an additional location estimate of an actual or expected future geographic location of the second mobile communication device at a different geographic location from the second location estimate L₂ or at a substantially different subsequent time from the time T, such that the additional location estimate is dependent upon the additional computation of a wireless location of the second mobile communication device, the additional computation using wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the second mobile communication device; (c2-4) the evaluator configured for second accessing the additional preference information AP, and determining that for the additional location estimate, and another of the real estate properties, both the second one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, and the additional, are sufficiently satisfied for presenting a corresponding third presentation of the plurality of presentations that is for the another real estate property; (c2-5) the evaluator configured for providing information for computing data for a route (R₁); wherein the route R₁ includes at least one direction for use in navigating from substantially the additional location estimate to substantially the another real estate property; wherein the transmitter is further configured for transmitting information indicative of one or more of: the information for computing data for the route R₁, and the third presentation to the second mobile communication device via a communications network; wherein one or more of the following options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied: (d1) at least one of the location estimate L_(EST) and the second location estimate L₂ is substantially continuously obtained; (d2) access is provided to one or more of real estate agents and real estate sellers to a network portal via the communications network, and the network portal receives information for the first and second real estate properties for the first and second presentations, wherein the real estate agents and the real estate sellers are not the first and second users; (d3) permission is obtained from the first user for obtaining the location estimate L_(EST); (d4) the location estimate L_(EST) is obtained as permitted by the first user; (d5) the first presentation includes one or more of: (1) price or sale terms; (2) area characteristic; (3) premise characteristic; (4) availability; (5) quality assessment (6) expenses; and (7) accessible time, for the first property; and (d6) a prediction is obtained for predicting at least one of: (1) appreciation; (2) maintenance/fix costs; (3) return on investment, and (4) utility costs, for the first property.
 27. The method of claim 26, wherein a plurality of the options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied.
 28. The method of claim 26, wherein most of the options (d1) through (d6) are satisfied.
 29. A method for assisting in a real estate transaction, the method comprising of (A) through (C) hereinbelow: (A) first obtaining, by a computational equipment, from at least a first user, user input respectively for first user real estate preference information for one or more real estate properties; wherein the first user real estate preference information includes data for a first one or more geolocation conditions for a the first user, said first one or more geolocation conditions for determining, from a plurality of real estate property presentations, one or more of the presentations to be presented at a first mobile communication device when accessed by the first user; wherein the first one or more geolocation conditions is satisfied, for a corresponding presentation (P) of the one or more presentations, by determining that: (i) for a location (L_(CD)), the location L_(CD) being some estimated location or location along an expected future route, of the first mobile communication device, and (ii) for a property location (D_(P)), for at least one of the real estate properties associated with the corresponding presentation P, the property location D_(P) satisfies one or more of (a1), (a2), and (a3) following: (a1) within one of: a specified user travel distance of the location L_(CD), or a specified geographically identified area of the location L_(CD); (a2) within a specified expected elapsed time of travel from the location L_(CD); and (a3) nearer to the location L_(CD) than at least one other destination for accessing of the at least one real estate property; (B) obtaining, by the computational equipment, a location estimate of an actual or expected future geographic location (L₂) of the first mobile communication device at a time (T), wherein the first location estimate is dependent upon a computation of a wireless location of the first mobile communication device, the first computation using first wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the first mobile communication device, wherein the first wireless signal propagation indicative information is wirelessly communicated between: (i) the first mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; (C) (c2) following, wherein for a first real estate property of the real estate properties, there is first presentation of the plurality of real estate property presentations providing information related to the first real estate property, and the first presentation having associated therewith information used for identifying a corresponding property location for the first real estate property: (c2) (c2-1) through (c2-5) following are performed, and determining that the first one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, wherein in addition to the first one or more geolocation conditions, there is additionally associated with the first user real estate preference information additional preference information (AP), said additional preference information AP also used for determining whether the first presentation for the first real estate property is to be presented at the first mobile communication device; wherein, from the additional preference information AP, a plurality of additional conditions are obtained; (c2-1) evaluating one or more of the additional conditions using the computational equipment, the evaluation of each of the one or more additional conditions is dependent upon a corresponding real estate property characteristic that does not vary with locations of the first mobile communication device; wherein prior to at least one performance of the evaluating, prioritizing or weighting at least some of the additional conditions, or results obtained from the additional conditions, is performed for affecting the evaluation of at least one of the additional conditions; (c2-2) determining, by the computational equipment, that for the first presentation at least one of the additional conditions is not sufficiently satisfied, when evaluated, in the evaluating (c2-1), for presenting the first presentation to the first user; (c2-3) obtaining, by the computational equipment, an additional location estimate of an actual or expected future geographic location of the first mobile communication device at a different geographic location from the location estimate L₂ or at a substantially different subsequent time from the time T, such that the additional location estimate is dependent upon an additional computation of a wireless location of the first mobile communication device, the additional computation using corresponding wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals indicative of a geolocation of the first mobile communication device, wherein the corresponding wireless signal propagation indicative information of one or more wireless signals are communicated wirelessly between: (i) the first mobile communication device, and (ii) a transmitter station for transmitting to a plurality of mobile communication devices; (c2-4) second accessing the additional preference information AP, and determining, by the computational equipment, that for the additional location estimate, and another of the real estate properties, the first one or more geolocation conditions are satisfied, and the additional conditions are sufficiently satisfied for presenting a corresponding second presentation of the plurality of presentations that is for the another real estate property; (c2-5) providing, by the computational equipment, information (Inf) for computing data for a route (R₁); wherein the route R₁ includes at least one direction for use in navigating from substantially the additional location estimate to substantially the another real estate property; and transmitting information indicative of one or more of: the information Inf, and the second presentation to the first mobile communication device via a communications network; wherein (d1) the location estimate L₂ is substantially continuously obtained; and wherein one or more of the following options (d2) through (d6) are satisfied: (d2) access is provided to one or more of real estate agents and real estate sellers to a network portal via the communications network, and the network portal receives information for the first estate property for the first presentation, wherein the real estate agents and the real estate sellers are not the first user; (d3) permission is obtained from the first user for obtaining the location estimate L₂; (d4) the location estimate L₂ is obtained as permitted by the first user; (d5) the first presentation includes one or more of: (1) price or sale terms; (2) area characteristic; (3) premise characteristic; (4) availability; (5) quality assessment; (6) expenses; and (7) accessible time, for the first property; and (d6) a prediction is obtained for predicting at least one of: (1) appreciation; (2) maintenance/fix costs; (3) return on investment, and (4) utility costs, for the first property.
 30. The method of claim 29, wherein a plurality of the options (d2) through (d6) are satisfied.
 31. The method of claim 30, wherein most of the options (d2) through (d6) are satisfied. 